Milwaukee, WI
Bradley Center
March 10, 2001

One more time! You ought to know the deal by now click here to cut to the chase.

Our fearless leader, Ron has some cool pictures from tonight up at his site.

As I headed out Saturday morning one of the first things to catch my eye was the picture of RN and RZ on the front of the Rockford paper. One of the last pictures of Rick with the beard...

I had to laugh because the picture was below the headline for a totally unrelated story about a RAPE AT A RETIREMENT HOME. LOL!

ANYway, Stephanie, Brian and I had a nice breakfast at the Country Inn. Maria and another fan, Laura were eating across the way. Since I was the only one in our group who was carrying on to Milwaukee, we had to say goodbye after the meal. Hate that! It was great to see them and have some good "hang out" time...

Ummmm... I gotta say that the drive up to Milwaukee isn't the prettiest stretch on the planet. This is probably due to the fact that it's winter - without any snow to cover the dead grass. After passing a pickup truck suspend in a tree (no, I'm not kidding) I reflected upon some of the funny and/or apropos signage on this trip. To date I'd seen signs for:

Robin's Restaurant (complete with checkerboard flags outside)

Peterson Gifts (I know, not spelled right, but still...)

Peterson Ave. (the exit to my brother's apt. in Chicago)

Nielsen Honda (or was it Harley Davidson - can't remember)

Ho-Chunk Casino at the Wisconsin Dells (Have I mentioned that it's largely believed that I was conceived at the Dells? It's true! Mom and dad honeymooned there and I was born almost 9 months to the day after they got hitched.)

And finally, my personal favorite:

Bong Recreational Area

It's the little things that amuse you on road trips...

Milwaukee isn't much to look at from I-94, but the downtown area has a really cool mixture of architectural styles. That afternoon I got to hang out some more with Ron and Kai before we met up with the rest of the hockey group. Ron has an a-ma-zing CT memorabilia collection. Incredible.

Dinner before the show was at Turner Restaurant across the street from the Bradley Center. When the 3 of us arrived, there were already some members of our group there. Kim came over to our table and proceeded to reveal just how damn gullible I am. . .

So, Kim says that at the post-show party in Rockford he'd had a chance to talk to Rick about the whole beard cutting moment. He then holds up a long brown braid (price tag and all) and convinces me that he now owns a piece of CT history.

Do you see where this is going?!

I was thoroughly convinced it was legit until I touched it. Kim, you magnificent bastard! It was nothing but some dark brown yarn.

Sheesh. Make no mistake, people. The man is not as sweet and innocent as he appears!

Anyway, when I wasn't being duped, I met some cool fans. Rich, Steve, Dawn, Peter and family, Neil... All of us headed over to the hockey game/CT show across the street in the rain. Lovely.

Inside the stadium you could see the stage set up on one end. Because of zamboni traffic, there was a piece of the stage left out of the middle. The lighting for the show was at stage level - with hoist motors ready to get the stuff airborne once the game was over.

Ahhh. The game. What's the word I'm thinking of to describe it? Ummm...

Boring?

Yep, that's the one.

It just wasn't very spirited. I felt bad for Kai because he was sitting next to the world's worst hockey explainer ever! He didn't look too terribly enthralled with it all. Oh well. He fit right in with our crowd. At least he won a t-shirt!

At one point you could see Rick in the stage area checking out the game...

The game was made much more tolerable by several CT clips from songs like Don't Be Cruel, Dream Police, ATAS (I heard that Rhonda and Dawn were on the Jumbotron dancing to this one. I missed it. DOH! I was wandering around at that point)... Between periods they played "The Flame" in its entirety.

We also passed the time by yelling our fool heads off whenever they announced our group from Trick International. Once again, Lisa's screaming scares grown men and small children ...

One of the trivia questions that night was CT related - they played "Surrender" (HT version) and the guy had to name the band. Duh. I'd already noticed the camera pointing towards our group so I decided the Homer sign would be the perfect thing for him to focus on. Camera dude didn't miss a beat. We screamed our heads off again when we appeared on the Jumbotron. God I felt sorry for the season ticket holders sitting nearby...

Could somebody please tell me what the hell that mascot is exactly?! Is it a dog? A muppet experiment gone horribly wrong? What?! And why is it orange? Why does it have a ponytail?! Why did it disturb me so much? :)

Some of us were able to get some empty seats closer to the stage in time for the show. I don't know if it was due to overtime or just the normal speed, but man, did they turn around for the show quickly!

THE SHOW

The whole thing was pretty odd since no one was allowed on the ice. The camera op was the only one in front of the stage... We had a decent view of Rick and BEC from our side but Tom and Robin were obscured by the speakers and cables on the side. Thanks to the Jumbotron we got to see them.

FASHION REPORT

It was another shortened set, thanks to the bozos at the Bradley Center. :P

It was a fun show - despite the shortened set. Like I said, the guys moved around a lot and tried to play to the crowd as much as possible, while giving the camera guy some stuff to work with. No denying though, it was a weird set up for a concert.

RN BANTER In no particular order..

Rick seemed very pleased to announce that the season attendance record corresponded with the night of their show. He mentioned it several times and also praised the Admirals for their 3-2 win in overtime against the Manitoba Moose.

He pointed out that several TI members were in attendance, rattling off where some of us were from. Ron yelled "MILWAUKEE!" as an addition to the list, which made Rick laugh. The Wisconsin connections continued when he introduced Robin as a Wisconsin-ite.

The new release was announced, of course, along with a plug for merchandise. He had to announce the exact location (something like sections 208 - 211) since the Bradley Center was so big!

At one point he touched his face and said he felt younger today for some reason. :)

POST SHOW STUFF

Some of us were able to catch the guys afterwards, which is always cool. Jon Brant was at the show that night, too. Didn't get up the nerve to talk to him though.

I got to talk to George a little more that night, too. He badgered me about going to Japan, telling me I could tell Tim it was a half-priced trip if I went alone. LOL. Some day I'd love to see the guys there. It just doesn't fit in the schedule (or the bank account!) this time around. George also tried to convince me that travel in Japan is "cheap." Yeah, right...

Anyway, it was nice of the guys to spare some time since they all had to head out for Michigan that night.

There was freezing rain and snow just in time for that. Yee haw. As we headed for my car, Ron helped keep me from wiping out in that crap. At that point, I really started looking forward to the warmer temps back in Midland.

Kim and Samantha had to head back to Madison. Bummer. Always so good to see them - I hate to say goodbye...

After bidding them farewell, Ron, Kai and I headed to one of his favorite bars, the Cactus Cafe. What a fun place! Ron's played there in years past and hangs out enough that he's put some CT CDs in the jukebox. Great stuff!

I stayed up much too late that night - but as Ron pointed out, I could sleep on the plane.

The plane that left at 7:50 IN THE MORNING! Blah!

Between going to bed well after 2 am and all the travel hoo-ha, I dozed most of the way back to Texas. The flights were smooth (mostly) and I had an entire row to myself on all of them. Woo hoo!

Bonus: when I stepped off the plane in Midland it was 70 degrees. YES!!!!!! I'd been banking on that during the cold, snowy weather during my time up north. Yeah, I was raised in the Midwest, but it didn't take long for my blood to thin out here in West Texas...

THANK YOU!

Well, as if you couldn't tell, I had a great time during my trip up north. Many thanks are due. . .

Ron - thanks for helping to organize the trip and including me in some of the MKE festivities. I had a blast and enjoyed seeing your hometown.

Kai - thanks to you, too. You were very kind to serve as photographer!

Stephanie, Maria, Kim and Samantha - thanks for being a cool group to hang out with.

And of course. . . A big ol' thanks to CT, Carla and the whole crew - you're always very good to me. Thanks for making me a happy fan - again!

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© Copyright, Lisa Jebsen, 2001